The OP did say that he/she expects the money to go to others. Not all tzar is are dealt with by throwing money at it.
There are many wealthy people who live nicely but they give huge sums to tzedakah. Amounts that I would assume many of the posters who make these comments cannot fathom. But they reach far into 7 & 8 digits. Annually.
They rely on heterim to distribute more than a chomesh.
There are also those who probably can give more, but most of these posters ignore or cannot fathom that there are huge baalei tzedakah who do so quietly.
So the question is if there are people who are having tzar is should we afflict ourselves also just to feel for them.
Similar to what we see in maseches taanis.